Bill Post: Special Session Mess

According to news sources this morning, just one week after Democrats rejected the idea of a Special Session of the Legislature that the minority Republican lawmakers had sought, the Democratic lawmakers, led by Senate President Peter Courtney and House Speaker Dave Hunt are now saying “it might be unavoidable”.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski, as you know, ordered 9% cuts across the board. Only lawmakers can make specific cuts that are of varying percentages by Oregon Constitutional law. Republicans such as Rep. Bruce Hanna, Rep. Kim Thatcher, Rep. Matt Wingard, Sen. Chris Telfer (by the way, the only CPA in the Legislature) all wanted to come in with a special session, very reluctantly, and make targeted cuts that made sense. We know that the “Back To Basics Budget” proposal from the 2009 Session was tossed in the trash by the Democrats because it didn’t address their “pork” spending. Democrats raised the budget by 15.9%. There is money all over the place in “secret places” that have no transparency, according to Sen. Telfer, that could be tapped to get us out of this financial disaster. That is why the Republicans wanted to meet. The Democrats said “no”.NOW, that some of their favorite “pet projects” and some of the State departments that raise the most cash and give the biggest support to Democrats, are in some trouble with Gov. Ted’s 9% cuts. That means losing some big time help.
For three weeks, I have been asking on the air “where is the OEA?” Have you noticed there hasn’t been so much as a “peep” out of the OEA over:

A) the $150 million the legislature took from the Education budget and gave to DHS?
B) the approximately $282 million that the Governor wants to cut from the Education budget now?
I’ll tell you why we didn’t hear anything: the OEA was meeting secretly with Hunt, Courtney and the Democrats and plotting the next taxes we will be subjected to in order to “save Oregon” from this budget crisis.

This state needs NEW leadership from the top all the way down. If you read my earlier story about the abuses at DHS, or listen to my daily radio show, you know that the Democratic leadership in Oregon are drunk with power and it’s time to take away their flasks!